More than 70 people joined together at the Bronx’s Fordham Plaza Friday afternoon to protest the war in Gaza — calling out politicians including U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson by name, claiming they are complicit in genocide in Palestine.
With a significant NYPD presence off to the side, shouts of “From the Bronx to Gaza, globalize the intifada” and “Free Palestine” rang out at the intersection of Third Avenue and East Fordham Road, as members of the Bronx Anti-War Coalition and other anti-war groups staged the public demonstration on May 3.
Many of the demonstrators were wearing medical scrubs and lab coats and held a banner reading “Healthcare Workers for Palestine.” They were soon joined by a group of Orthodox Jews, who stood quietly but held up signs reading “Torah demands all Palestine be returned to Palestinian sovereignty” and “Zionists ignited the fire both now and in the past.”
As people passed by on the busy street, some stopped to film on their phones and a couple cars honked seemingly in support as they drove by. At 4 p.m., about two hours after the group had assembled, they briefly blocked traffic on East Fordham Road.
The protest took place right outside Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus in the Bronx and included at least one student who participated in the Gaza solidarity encampment at the school’s Lincoln Center campus in Manhattan earlier this week.
Matthew Smith, a freshman physics major at Fordham, told the Bronx Times during the May 3 protest outside his university that college campuses should be “safe spaces to have these discussions,” not places where students fear suspension or arrest.
He nodded to the large-scale campus demonstrations in Manhattan that have garnered much of the recent attention — specifically at Columbia University, which has been widely credited as the leader of the now-nationwide Gaza solidarity encampments.
Smith said he was…
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